Denial, Revisited
by The Hermione Granger Fan Club
Summary: Working and caring for an infant daughter, Jace receives a visit from Zack. Titled after an Offspring song (featuring an excerpt from same song) and PG for swearing. R & R!


So here we go  
Having the same old fight again  
So there she goes  
Same old game that never ends   
If I could say  
All the right words  
I know I could make you stay  
If I could say  
All the right words  
Things would work out all right   
  
And if you go  
I won't believe  
That it's forever   
  
And you can go  
But I'll never leave  
'Cause it's not over   
  
- 'Denial, Revisited' by The Offspring  
  
Jace lay on her stomach in her living room, reading a thick, dusty novel while her baby daughter, Max, gurgled and waved her arms as she gazed at the wind chimes Jace had hung up. The house was incredibly tidy and Jace hadn't been able to resist indulging in the frivolous, crystalline wind chimes.   
  
She gave the child a shy grin. "Like those, Little Maxie? Me too."  
  
There was a knock at the door. Jace sighed and went back to her book.   
  
"Open up!" yelled a voice. "I need to speak with you."  
  
"Don't be dumb, we're paid through Thursday," answered Jace. "Go bother someone else- it's my day off work with my daughter and my book."  
  
There was silence. Content, Jace went back to her reading.   
  
Glass shattered.   
  
Jace jumped to her feet, scooping up Little Max in her arms. She began to walk slowly toward the kitchen, her toddler cooing on her hip.   
  
She entered to find a tall blonde man of about twenty-three inspecting the contents of her fridge. "Nice place you got here, Jacey," he said, looking at her. He shut the door and folded his arms.   
  
Her eyes narrowed. She felt her body tense up for battle and had to struggle not to crush her daughter in the crook of her arm. Jace began shaking with rage. She'd never been very adept at concealing anger.   
  
"I'd like to know exactly what the hell you think you're doing in my house, creep," she said softly, her voice harsh nonetheless. "You have exactly five seconds to get out of here before I kill you. If you think you're touching me or my daughter, you scum, think again. I'll kick your ass to kingdom come."  
  
He turned to her, a smile curling his lips. "Touchy."  
  
Jace carefully deposited Maxie in her highchair. "Close your eyes, please, baby," she said. The last word didn't sound like a term of endearment... more like she was hesitant about using Max's name.   
  
Little Max obediently shut her eyes. The man raised his eyebrows in surprise.   
  
With a yell, she raced at him. To her shock, his hands shot out and he threw her against the wall, holding her there. She squirmed.   
  
His eyes stared into hers as she tried to kick out at him. Neither moved as Little Max opened her eyes at the noise and began to cry.   
  
Jace closed her own eyes for a moment. "Please," she said, her voice shaking. No man outside of Manticore had ever been able to take her on. "Please, don't hurt Max. Don't hurt my baby."  
  
"Max? Is that what you named her?"  
  
"What are you doing in my house?"  
  
"Word got through the X5 grapevine that you were relatively sane, pregnant and living in Mexico. 'Course, by the time I got here- well, you know."  
  
Jace stared at the man in shock. His face suddenly seemed familiar. Her features hardened yet again. "State your designation."  
  
"X5-599. 330417291599," he rattled off. "Alias Zack. Do you need my birthdate, Jace?"  
  
"You don't have one."  
  
"At least they didn't screw up that part of your mind, Jace."  
  
"Let me go."  
  
Zack let go of Jace's shoulders. She ran to pick up Little Max, rocking her and murmuring, giving Zack the evil glares he remembered of the child Jace.   
  
"What in God's name are you doing here?"  
  
"I'm CO. It's my responsibility to look out for all the X5s. Now that you're out... that means you."  
  
"I'm honoured that NOW you see fit to help me. Get the hell out of my house."  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"Oh, all right. Get the hell out of my house, PLEASE."  
  
Zack gazed at his younger sister. "I'm here to make sure you're all right. Most X5s would be grateful."  
  
"Grateful for a brother with so much tact and finesse? You could have called instead of being dumb and breaking into my house!"  
  
"How am I supposed to know your phone number? I don't even know your last name! And I KNOCKED." He paused. "Don't tell me you were scared."  
  
"Please. Scared of an intruder? Don't make me laugh. I would have snapped you in two and dumped you somewhere before taking my kid for a walk and going back to my book. And the name is MORALES. Jace Morales. Dumbass."  
  
"Still fixated with that word, I see. I had wondered if you'd outgrown it."  
  
"What word?"  
  
"Dumb. As I recall, it was a nervous habit."  
  
"Get out of my house or I'll call the cops."  
  
"You wouldn't do that. And don't worry, I'll leave soon enough."  
  
Jace gave him her signature glare. "You could make ice with that, Jace."  
  
"Oh, I see. You tracked me and my little girl down somehow, broke into my house, traumatised her and nearly broke my neck- the list goes on and on. And your reason, PERFECTLY acceptable might I add, is that you went to all that trouble just to pay me compliments. I'm touched."  
  
"I can definitely see how that would attract men, Jace. Who's the father?"  
  
"None of your business."  
  
"I'm guessing you're not married."  
  
"You guessed right. Like to leave now?"  
  
Zack began to get angry. "I'm here to help you, Jace."  
  
"I don't need your help. I don't need ANYONE'S help." Jace waved a hand around at the place. "You see this house? I worked for this. You see this kid? I'm raising her all alone. You see this woman? I survived twenty years with no love from any of my family. Therefore, you got no love in return. The only person in this fucking UNIVERSE that I care about is my baby. Go and help Max, you liked her."  
  
Zack sighed loudly and sat down at the small kitchen table. "You've been shutting us out since you were a baby, Jace. You're out now, and you're not even homicidal or anything. I want to help."  
  
"There wasn't much of a reason to open up to any of you. Dear God, Zack, did any of you really think you were making my childhood any better by telling me I was stupid for wanting to keep out of trouble? For wanting to make you proud of me? For following the rules and completing the objective? I was taught to think that that was what a good soldier was," Jace said.   
  
Jace didn't know why she said what she said next. But Jace sighed, "But... for old time's sake, I guess you can stay for half an hour and meet your niece. For news that's gone through this 'X5 grapevine', surprisingly few of you have showed up to see her. I'm assuming you have someplace to stay."  
  
"Absolutely."  
  
"I'll get you some water," said Jace grudgingly. "You obviously want to pry into my life, which I've turned around remarkably well without the slightest bit of assistance from you. Here, hold the baby." She put Little Max into Zack's arms. She smirked as she saw how uncomfortable he looked.   
  
"Why don't you call her by her name?" asked Zack, sitting slowly down. "You keep calling her your kid or The Baby. You named her after Max, didn't you? Our Max, I mean."  
  
Jace did not answer and pushed a glass of water to Zack. "So what have you been doing the last eleven years?"  
  
"Got arrested for robbery when I was thirteen, rescued Brin and Zane from certain death at the hands of some Manticore soldiers when I was fifteen, travelled the country uprooting comfortably settled rogue X5s, tried to split up Syl and Krit unsuccessfully about eight times. Such is the life of a CO."  
  
"How deep," said Jace sarcastically.   
  
"You planning on having any more kids? She's sort of... I don't know..."  
  
An odd smile appeared on Jace's mouth. "Cute? Sort of cute?"  
  
"You could call it that."  
  
"Make your perfectly understandable reason for all of the above offences complimenting both me AND Max. And no, I won't. Max is going to be an only child of a single working parent, thank you."  
  
"Max and Jace Morales. Was that the father's name?"  
  
"Why do you keep pushing that?"  
  
"It's a simple question, Jace, was the man's surname Morales or not?"  
  
Jace seemed far away for a moment. "No. It was Owen."  
  
"Jace and Max Owen. I see where you're coming from on this."  
  
"Why has there been no mention so far of any uprooting, Zack?"  
  
"Well, you're not in any danger. Understand that the second compromisation is apparent I'll have you shipped off to Europe with or without the kid."  
  
Jace gave him a hard look. "Why are you doing this? You don't love me. You were far from loving me."  
  
"You're one of us again. I can't abandon you."  
  
The look Jace gave her older brother was a bitter one. "Why, Zack? You were perfectly fine with it when you were eleven. Here, give me Maxie back."  
  
She stood up and abruptly fetched Little Max out of Zack's hold. He studied her. "If you had wanted to come with me I would have let you come."  
  
"Whatever you have to tell yourself."  
  
"You seem like a good mom, Jace. Tinga's got kids too." He seemed resentful about this.   
  
"How many? I could always imagine Tinga with a thousand and one kids."  
  
"Just the one. Case Michael Smith. The dad's an asshole, but-"  
  
"I bet you think everyone who wasn't made in a test tube is an asshole."  
  
"Why, don't you?"  
  
"Yes. But not all of them."  
  
"So I'm assuming she's not second-generation X5."  
  
"God, Zack, you make my baby sound deformed. I get enough grief for her being fatherless, for Christ's sakes. It's just dumb."  
  
"You've got problems, Jace."  
  
She gave him a look so venomous it could kill an ox in four seconds flat. "Bullshit! Get the hell out of my house already, Zack!"  
  
"What happened to letting me meet my niece?"  
  
"You've met her and she doesn't like you. She's a smart girl."  
  
Zack seemed, like Jace, to be having trouble keeping his temper under control. "Time for the standard issue Zack gift," he told Jace with gritted teeth. "Five hundred American dollars in cash and access to my contact number- only to be used in dire emergencies."  
  
He handed her a wad of cash and a piece of folded paper.  
  
Jace inspected the paper. "You have TWO backup lines?"  
  
"Yeah. The signal gets interfered with. I bet it's those Eyes Only broadcasts."  
  
She raised her eyebrows. "You got some kinda score to settle with Eyes Only, Zack?"  
  
"You could say that."  
  
"I'm not going to use your dumb contact line, Zack."  
  
"You're a free X5 and you have to fall in line, Jace." He sighed. "This has been perhaps the briefest reunion I've ever had."  
  
"Yeah, and I'd like it to be brief as possible. Leave Little Max and me alone! Get out of my house and out of my life! And take your money with you, we don't need it."  
  
Zack left. Jace stood there breathing hard and gave Little Max a hesitant kiss on the top of the head. "We don't need that deserter, do we, baby?" she asked. "I think it's time for your nap."  
  
Jace put Little Max into her crib and lay on the floor of the living room again, closing her eyes.   
  
"Zack?" she remembered her own childish voice asking. It was about one in the morning. "Zack, where are you going?" She yawned and rubbed at her eyes. Jace had heard her older brother rifling through his locker at the far end of the dormitory  
  
"Go back to bed, Jace," Zack had said. He was dressed in his soldier's camis and combat boots, a black baseball cap on his head to disguise his lack of hair.   
  
"Zack, come on, back to bed. The Nomalies will get you if you walk around at night alone." Jace didn't believe in Nomalies but knew Zack did.   
  
"Goodbye, Jace. Go back to bed." Zack began to walk towards the doors of the dormitory.   
  
Why was he saying goodbye? "Come on, Zack," she said, her voice unusually gentle. "Come back to bed. You'll get in trouble."  
  
"Are you coming with me?" he asked her, turning and looking very hard at Jace.   
  
Jace gave him her characteristic glower. "No, I'm not coming!" She paused. "Where are you going?"  
  
"Promise not to say?"  
  
She hesitated. "Yeah, sure." Another pause. "Zack, why are you dressed? We don't have to get up for hours!"  
  
"I'm going after the others."  
  
This took a few seconds to sink in. "Zack!" she gasped. "You CAN'T. We need you! You're CO of the whole X5 class!"  
  
"Bye, Jace."  
  
"Zack, no!" pleaded Jace, snatching at his arm. He flinched and tugged his arm away. "Please. You can't leave us behind," she begged.   
  
"Jace... quiet!" hissed the older boy.   
  
"No!" she answered. "No, I'm not going to be quiet until you promise me you're not going to leave us like them!"  
  
He shoved her. "If you don't shut up, I'll shut you up!"  
  
"No! NO! Don't do this to us," she implored, and found she'd started to cry. "Zack, I know I'm not your favourite, not like Maxie or Jondy, but if you love me even a little, stay here. Don't leave me."  
  
"I'm not leaving you; I'm asking you to come with me, Jace!"  
  
"To the Outside? We'll die there!"  
  
"Then get out of my way and don't expect to see me again."  
  
She stepped in front of him and glared through teary eyes. "YOU'RE OUR BROTHER!" she screamed, becoming hysterical at the prospect of losing yet another sibling.   
  
"Shut up!" he ordered, and punched her in the forehead- right between the eyes.   
  
Crying and crumpled on the floor, she watched him leave. "You're our brother," she had murmured, and fainted.  
  
That was basically my childhood in a nutshell, thought Jace ruefully. Always being discarded for the favoured sibs.   
  
But he's tracked me down, she considered. That counts for something...  
  
It was a week later when she dialled the contact number at a payphone, jiggling a bawling Little Max in her pushchair. "Talk," said a recorded voice.   
  
"Um... it's me. Jace, I mean. You know. Uh, all right. I'm fine, Max is fine- not that you care, you're not really a kid person, but neither am I for obvious reasons. Perhaps... sometime... you can give me a call. I'd like to know where the others are. Krit, Jondy, Omri, Syl, you know. Uh... God, I feel dumb. Hope you're well. Yes. OK. Bye."  
  
She abruptly hung up the phone and wheeled Little Max home.   
  
"That was dumb, wasn't it, baby?" she asked, bundling her baby into a highchair while she made dinner for the two of them. "God. What was I thinking? I don't need him. I didn't, don't and won't ever need any of my family. Except for you, my sister Max, and my sister Eva."  
  
Little Max crowed and whacked her spoon on her empty plate, giggling.   
  
"Don't do that, Little Max."  
  
The infant's spoon wavered in midair before being set down quietly on her plate. Jace pretended not to notice this.   
  
"I think you would have liked your Aunt Eva, Little Max. We didn't look at all related, but she was definitely my favourite. I don't need anyone else, and I definitely don't need Zack."  
  
The timer rang for their food and she went to get it.   
  
Jace was toying with the mobile phone she'd bought second-hand three months later. "I should check in with Zack..." she mused aloud. It was almost eleven o'clock at night.   
  
She dialled the number and waited patiently. The recorded voice spoke. "Attention to all those known as X5- this line has been terminated. 599 is absent without leave. This call will now be transferred to 205, the next in line. Please punch in your barcode to continue."  
  
Jace went cold inside and hung up. Zack was AWOL? Why? What had happened to him?  
  
Jace remembered her brother Zane- the 205 the number spoke of. She and Zane were utter opposites. She hadn't been able to stand him.   
  
Why hadn't she called in? Zack could be dead, she though in a panic. What had been the last thing she'd ever said to him? Jace had no idea. But she had to phone in sometime.  
  
"I don't need him..." she said aloud, this sounding extremely familiar to the frightened woman.   
  
She thought about Zane and cringed. They'd hated each other when they were children. Reconciling via phone was going to be torture.   
  
"Zack will be back again. In the meantime... I might as well make peace with the next in line."  
  
* * *   
  
DISCLAIMER: 'Dark Angel' belongs to James Cameron and Fox and the song 'Denial, Revisited' belongs to The Offspring and their record company. Not me. So don't sue.   
  
NOTE: I'm not sure exactly what timeframe this would be. If it's impossible that this could happen, call it an AU fic.   
  
I'm not really sure why I used the song 'Denial, Revisited' for this fic. I think the excerpt that I used could be from both Zack and Jace's perspective- the part about going and such. If you haven't, get hold of the song because it is absolutely AWESOME. It's practically my favourite track the band ever produced.   
  
And if you're bored and you like Jace, I've written quite a few fics about her- two with Little Max in them. Hint, hint. Laters! 


End file.
